iphone

[Venerable Bede]

ok economists, have at it....

AT&T plans to charge smart phone customers for heavy data traffic

"In a presentation to investors today, AT&T's head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, acknowledged that just 3% of iPhone users accounted for a massive 40% of the data traffic on AT&T's mobile network. By using data-intense applications such as streaming audio and video services, a small number of iPhone users have been putting a huge burden on the company's network, causing lackluster performance in major markets including New York City and San Francisco."

[vansmack]

As we discussed last night, that's complete bullshit.  It's clear they don't get it and Verizon has their panties all up in a ball.

at&t's major problems are with too many people on it's 1G network, not it's 3G network.  Phone calls and text messages travel across the first gen network, not the 3G network, and the vast majority of complaints about at&t's service are of dropped calls, not slow data speeds.

Way to gouge at&t.

[vansmack]

this price-point debate of yours may well be purely academic, until they get their IP fights out of the way:

Claim available, but no claim for breach of contract or IP.  As I predicted, he's screwed and the product will continue to move along with a settlement likely.

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

This is almost entirely predictable given Apple's decision to go exclusive with ATT.  There's enough people out there that love their Iphones that they'd pay for higher data rates rather than switch to another carrier and thus phone.   

People will bitch and scream about it but they'll keep their Iphones. 

Much like service charges on tickets! 

[Venerable Bede]

at&t consultant says iphone responsible for crappy service

[vansmack]

at&t consultant says iphone responsible for crappy service

Hehe:

"I asked Ron Dicklin, chief technology officer at Root Wireless, how these results, showing AT&T as the clear leader, could be reconciled with the negative appraisal of Consumer Reports? respondents. He explained that his company?s tests of AT&T?s data network were done with handsets other than the iPhone, which does not allow non-Apple programs like his to run in the background."

Maybe that's why there's no app for that....

[Darth Ed]

http://daringfireball.net/2009/12/stross_lying_eyes

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

http://daringfireball.net/2009/12/stross_lying_eyes

that reads like a typical "defend Apple at all costs" fanboi column.

[godsshoeshine]

yeah but the ny times article sounds like typical apple fanboi backlash

[vansmack]

It doesn't matter to me as long as people are starting to realize that neither are all they're cracked up to be.  It only took 3+ years....

[godsshoeshine]

according to both of those links its one and not the other though

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

So my Iphone stopped working after less than a year.   It was refusing to charge.

I took it in to a "Genius," who said that there was corrosion in the sync/charger port.   That, she said, signified moisture, which voids Apple's warranty.   Apple even builds a moisture detector into the port, and also inside the phone itself.  She opened the phone and found that the moisture detector inside had remained dry, and so decided to believe me that I'd never immersed it in water, and treat it as warranty service.    Which is a good thing, because non-warranty service really means that they swap out your phone and charge you $199 for it, and if it came to that I was gonna switch to a different phone.

The bottom line though is that it seems like that port is extremely vulnerable.    The rest of the phone was fine even after months of sleeveless use.   I am wondering if there is a cap you can get that goes in that port when not in use to protect it.

[vansmack]

If you only need a hardware provider, MS would be much better served by contracting with HTC to provide a MS branded phone.  It would cost half as much, it's already used to your platform, and they're putting out the most innovative hardware on the market (sorry Apple folks, but the iPhone hasn't changed its appearance in 3 years now, to where HTC has a new phone every 2 months or so).

------------------------------

HTC is selling better phones for Android than the Google "branded" ones,  and since Google doesn't license the Google Brand on software that has been altered, eventually they're going to need their own hardware for control purposes (unless they take the MS approach - we don't need hardware, we just want OS credit). 

Smackie loves it when he makes a plausible suggestion to Microsoft, that they of course ignore, and Google beats them to the punch with his EXACT idea (for the record, it was July 31 when he had that idea):

Google Nexus One is Official

3.7-inch AMOLED display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, and a multicolored LED under the trackball.

Likely to be a T-Mobile phone.....(EDIT: Available today on T-Mobile, $179 on a two-year deal)

EDIT: Verizon is getting the Nexus One in spring 2010.  WOW!

[Venerable Bede]

Google Nexus One is Official

3.7-inch AMOLED display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, and a multicolored LED under the trackball.


EDIT: Verizon is getting the Nexus One in spring 2010.  WOW!

so, are you saying i shouldn't use my $100-new-every-2 discount on a droid? 

[vansmack]

so, are you saying i shouldn't use my $100-new-every-2 discount on a droid? 

That depends on if you need a physical keyboard or not.  The Nexus One will have a touch screen keyboard only, but will be BY FAR the most powerful Android phone to date. 

The Motorola DROID has a physical keyboard but will be sluggish compared to the Nexus One, and my guess is that all future upgrades to Android 2.x will be based on Googles snappy handset with apologies for sluggishness on other units.